The ball flew off his bat and made a beeline for the right-field bleachers, seemingly a perfect Yankee Stadium stroke. Except Mike Tauchman was in another league on another coast with another team.
The Giants hope the Yankees’ loss is their gain with Tauchman, who hit a decisive three-run home run in Sunday’s 7-1 victory in San Diego.
After scoring just four runs the previous two nights, the Giants benefited from their biggest swing of the series, Tauchman’s in the third inning versus Joe Musgrove that resulted in a 385-foot blast to right field and a 4-1 lead for the visitors.
It was a moment worth celebrating for the Giants, who still lead the National League West but remain underdogs to the mighty Dodgers and Padres.
While winning one of three isn’t a formula for success, Sunday’s series capper was memorable, and whether it’s a game the Giants reflect on weeks or months from now as a statement game is to be determined.
If the goal over these final five months is to keep stunning the baseball world by keeping up with the Southern California powers, then Tauchman and Co. will need to keep pumping out wins like Sunday’s.
“I think we’ll win a lot close ballgames and will be in lot of games,” said Tauchman, whose bases-loaded walk in the ninth gave him four RBIs. “When you’re in the game every single night, really good things can happen.”
Kevin Gausman, whose start slightly was pushed back because he had tweaked his groin throwing a pitch late in his previous outing, gave up one run (Fernando Tatis Jr.’s homer) in six innings and outpitched Musgrove, who threw a no-hitter April 9, the first in Padres’ history.
The offense failed the Giants the first two games, blowing repeated scoring opportunities, but it was far more reliable in the finale even though a little-ball parade preceded the home run. Curt Casali walked, Gausman hustled on a bunt and was safe on a throwing error and Tommy La Stella blooped an RBI single.
Then came Tauchman, who was lost in the outfield shuffle in the Bronx and hit his first homer since 2019 (when he hit 13), coming five days after he was acquired for reliever Wandy Peralta.
While Tauchman pulled his home run, he said his philosophy is using the entire field because, “If you have the skill set or approach that allows you to use only half the field, you’re limiting yourself.”
It was the first time this season Tauchman started consecutive games, and he lined out to short and got robbed in right-center by Jurickson Profar.
“He has plenty of power and showed the power in ’19 and in spring training,” manager Gabe Kapler said, “and the bat speed was there earlier in the season in New York.”
Tauchman fell behind 0-2, worked the count to 2-2, swung at a cutter low and in and crushed it. Just like that, the Giants remain in the conversation with the big boys, and it took a newcomer to help make possible a happy flight to Colorado.
Just don’t ask the manager if the visit to Petco Park was a test for the Giants. Or whether next weekend’s home series against the Padres will be a test. Or whether the seven games against the Dodgers in late May will be a test.
“I don’t think any of us are in this to pass tests,” Kapler said. “We’re here to win baseball games, as many of them as we can, and it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side.”
There you go. Evidence the Giants mean business about remaining relevant. As should be the case. The Giants don’t want to just crash the Dodger-Padre party. They want to throw one of their own.
After the Tauchman tater, the Giants didn’t let up. Gausman, of all people, began a two-run rally in the fifth with his first hit of the year and scored on La Stella’s triple to left-center.
La Stella scored on Wilmer Flores’ groundout but strained his left hamstring a few steps from the plate and was removed from the game. He’ll have an MRI.
John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey
May 03, 2021 at 06:27AM
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/giants/article/Giants-send-message-with-win-in-San-Diego-still-16146159.php
Giants send message with win in San Diego, still in first place - San Francisco Chronicle
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